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LOCATION
Wolgast (Wołogoszcz)– a city in Mecklemburg-Western Pomerania, approx. 30 from Greifswald, 40 km from Świnoujście and 125 km from Szczecin. The city is located by the Piana Strait by the estuary to the Baltic Sea. It is called „the gate to the island of Usedom”. There is a marina here, so you can get here not only by car and by train but also by yacht. 54°03′11″N 13°46′31″E
The City History Museum „Kaffeemühle”, photo source: own.
SCENIC CHARACTER
Since 2010, it has been officially called the City of Dukes’. The city was one of the capitals of the Pomeranian Duchy. The beginnings of the city date back to 1128, when the Pomeranian duke Vratislav arrived here together with the bishop Otto from Bamberg with a Christian mission. With the expansion of the Duchy of Pomerania in the 15thcentury, on the peninsula (The Castle Island), a huge castle was built which was the seat of Pomeranian Dukes. Many representatives of the Griffins dynasty were born here. The castle has not endured to the present times. Its miniature and part of the survived equipment can be seen in the City History Museum „Kaffeemühle”, where you can learn the history of the city. Nearby there is a 13th-15th-century Gothic basilica of St. Peter, which in 1532 became a church of dukes. The church is one of the most important necropolis of the dukes of the Griffins dynasty. There are two crypts in it with richly decorated sarcophaguses of dukes. The entrance to the crypt covers board with the Grand Coat of Arms of the Pomeranian Duchy. In the church, you should also pay attention to the epitaph of Prince Philip I with the coat of arms of the Pomeranian region. On one of the pillars, there is a coat of arms of the prince Bogusław X, and in the northern room of the tower the coat of arms of the dukes from the 16-th century. Both remind about carried out reconstructions of the castle of the Wolgast.The memory of the magnificence, Wolgast in Dukes’ time has survived in the coat of arms of the city, where two black griffins, supported by paws and keys, embrace the castle tower.
ATTRACTIONS
Wolgast with the Church of St. Peter and the chapel of St. Gertrude belongs to the European Brick Gothic Route. It is an architectural style characteristic for countries in the South Baltic area. You can enter the tower of the church of St. Peter to admire the panorama of the city and the island of Usedom. Chapel of St. Gertrude is a twelve-sided brick building with a central column and a stellar vault from the 15th century. There is a baroque town hall in the square, which fell victim to fires during the Thirty Years’ War, but in the years 1720-1724, it was completely rebuilt. Between Castle Island and the old town, there is a museum port. In this place has been moored in the oldest railway ferry in Europe – a steamer named „Stralsund”. In Wolgaście in 1777, the famous German illustrator and painter Philipp Otto Runge was born. He is considered to be an outstanding portraitist and landscape painter, one of the precursors of Romanticism in German art. The house where he was born is exhibited full-sized copies of Runge’s paintings, whose originals are in the gallery in Hamburg. An attraction, especially for young tourists, is the Familienterpark.
INFORMATION SOURCES
Heritage Class: [ C ]Cultural Heritage
Subclass [MS] : Monuments and sites
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